Khoikapek/Species
The Khoikapek are a sapient species from the planet Tobano. They evolved as swamp hunters, clustering around the large basins and river deltas of Tobano to hunt fish; as such they are able to fly in order to cover large hunting regions. Khoikapek also possess the usual distinctive characteristics of Tobano life, such as heterothallism, methanogenesis, cloacal respiration and octopedalism. Environment Khoikapek evolved in the forested swamps, basins and river deltas that cover over half of the land surface of Tobano around the substellar point; this wet environment is caused by the constant storm systems thrown out by the central hurricane of Tobano, caused by the constant heating of the same side of the tidally locked planet. Another contributing factor to the formation of this large swamp region is the high gravity of Tobano, leading to considerable erosion over time, meaning there are few genuinely mountainous regions on the planet. Here the Khoikapek evolved to hunt fish, which comprises most of their diet; the best hunting grounds are the unforested river deltas in raised clearings which are dryer than the surrounding swamps of the region. Tobano is a large planet with a high gravity of about 2.2G, but also a high atmospheric pressure of 12.1 atmospheres, making flight much easier than on planets with lower atmospheric pressures. The atmosphere of Tobano is primarily made up of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, meaning that most fauna are methanogens (inhaling carbon dioxide and exhaling methane); mole for mole, methanogenesis is about half as efficient as aerobic respiration, but this is largely offset by the high atmospheric pressure and large carbon dioxide fraction of the air. Biochemistry Like most other life on Tobano, Khoikapek have a typical carbon-based biochemistry, though they generally use right handed amino acids; they also use water as a solvent in their bodies. The most interesting aspect of Tobano life is respiration. Typically, most carbon-based fauna that uses water as a solvent respires oxygen as part of anaerobic respiration, but Tobano fauna instead uses methanogenisis, respiring carbon dioxide. This is very unusual, as aerobic respiration is twice as energy efficient as methanogenesis. The reason ca be found by analysing the origins of life on Tobano. On most planets with carbon-based water life, the first single-celled organisms produced oxygen via photosynthesis, locking this oxygen into minerals such as iron through oxidation, as well as locking it into methane to produce carbon dioxide. Eventually, all of these oxygen sinks are full, and life is forced to begin releasing pure oxygen into the atmosphere; this forms an ozone layer, blocking UV rays and allowing oxygen respiring life to come out of the protection of the oceans. On Tobano, a similar process took place. However, the sun of Tobano is a red dwarf, and emits almost no UV radiation; this means that life was able to come to the surface of the planet immediately, without waiting for the atmosphere to be oxygenated. This life therefore had to respire carbon dioxide instead of oxygen, producing methane in the process. This results in the production of an unlimited amount of methane for photosynthesising organisms to lock oxygen into, producing more carbon dioxide. Because of this, flora on Tobano takes in methane and produces carbon dioxide, while fauna takes in carbon dioxide and produces methane. Anatomy Category:Articles by User:Mr.Robbo Category:Khoikapek Category:CreaturesKhoikapek are about 1.4 metres long from end to end. They have eight limbs, though some would argue that this figure is actually twelve; they have four legs, two arms and two wings, as well as two vestigial wings and two vestigial 'feeding tentacles' around the mouth, which are common among most life on Tobano. The head is at the front of the body, on the end of a reasonably long neck, and the arms are actually attached at the underside, behind and between the front legs; meanwhile, the wings are attached on the top of the body, about halfway down, meaning that they are specially evolved with a membrane that stretches forward, almost to the neck, to aid in flight stability. At the very back of the body is the cloaca, which is cone-shaped and flares out at the end. Breathing and excretion is via the cloaca; there are vestigial wings attached to the cloaca which aid in flight, but also respiration (gases can exchange through the vestigial wings); as such, it is impossible to kill a Khoikapek by blocking their cloaca, as they will simply fall unconscious. The wingspan of the average Khoikapek is 2.35 metres, and the wings are made membranes of skin. Most of the Khoikapek body is covered in fine pycnofibres, which are tightly packed to prevent swamp parasites from reaching the skin; the exception to this is the feet and hands, which are covered in thick, tough, leathery skin. The cloaca is made up of a tough material similar to cartilage, but very light and not part of the main skeleton. The hands and feet each have six long digits, radially arranged, with tough nails at the ends. The head is very wide due to two fins of cartilage sticking out of the side, which contain the eyes (separating the eyes improves depth perception, crucial for hunting fish). It has no teeth, just an unsupported, circular, tubular mouth covered at the end with two flaps (vestigial feeding tentacles). Khoikapek have basket-like skeletons made up of a network of wiry bones fused together by collagen 'glue', which surround the internal organs like a basket, with the skin stretched over the top (the limbs are boned slightly differently; they are hollow like those of a bird). The collagen sites are also the points from which new bone grows in adolescents. The lung is located within the cloaca and the back of the body and is compartmentalised into six different parts for redundancy. The heart is in the head and the brain is at the base of the neck at the top of the body (hence a sharp blow to the back at the base of the neck can knock a Khoikapek out). The stomach is long and thin, positioned beneath the brain; in front of the stomach is the gizzard, which is lined with chitin to grind up food, as Khoikapek have no teeth. Reproduction Khoikapek are heterothallistic, meaning they possess both male and female sexual organs. Khoikapek have tiny, acne-like lumps on their chests, just at the base of the neck. During reproduction, two or more Khoikapek rub their chests together, which eventually start to exude a sweat-like liquid; this liquid is drawn along the pyncofibres on the chest of another Khoikapek into the acne-like growths. If fertilisation is successful, one of these growths (rarely more than one; if more than one is fertilised, the body usually naturally aborts the others) will begin to grow into a small neonate beneath the skin. After 37 days (one Tobano day), this neonate detaches and makes its way into the pouch of the Khoikapek, which is just behind the arms and usually just consists of a tiny slit, where it suckles and eventually develops into an adolescent Khoikapek; as this happens the pouch expands to accommodate the adolescent. The adolescent first leaves the pouch after around 185 days (five Tobano days) and no longer enters the pouch after around 259 days (seven Tobano days). After this, the pouch will gradually seal up again after 37 days (one Tobano day). Senses Many of the Khoikapek senses are developed to complement their primeval hunting technique, in which a Khoikapek will stand in a body of water and spread their wings to provide cool shade (to attract the fish) and to block any glare from the sun. When they see a fish beneath them, the Khoikapek grabs it out of the water with its legs. It is hypothesised that this is why the back forelegs evolved into arms; as legs, they had to be pulled out of the water, positioned over the fish, then plunged back in to grab it; the disturbance of the leg being pulled out of the water often scared the fish away before it could be caught. Arms can be positioned constantly above the water, hovering over potential prey (in the distinctive 'hand dance' of a hunting Khoikapek). Despite being covered in pycnofibres, Khoikapek have an excellent sense of touch, especially at the base of the legs (in fact, sensitivity to the movement of the pycnofibres actually enhances the sense of touch); this makes Khoikapek more astute to swamp parasites, as well as aiding in the detection of fish under the water while hunting. Their hearing is a direct extension of their sense of touch, as Khoikapek primarily hear through their feet, which, again, aids in the hunting of fish. The Khoikapek sense of sight is very sharp, as it is one of the main senses used in hunting, as well as in flight. The eyes are positioned halfway down the head, projected outwards on cartilage extensions of the skull; this allows for improved depth perception, helping to compensate for refraction on the surface of the water while hunting; when the ancestors of Khoikapek first began hunting fish (many millions of years ago), and had yet to evolve these eye-projections, they had to bob their heads from side to side. Interestingly, Khoikapek are sensitive to a wide range of infrared light (as this is the primary range of frequencies emitted by their red dwarf sun), and a small range of ultraviolet light, but not frequencies in-between. Their sensitivity to this narrow range of ultraviolet light allows them to see the warning signs to an impending solar flare (red dwarf stars often give off violent solar flares, and Tobano is very close in to its sun). The Khoikapek mouth is very simple (basically a floppy, tubular, unsupported extension from the front of the skull) and has no teeth, while the tongue is basically a folded over section of skin at the base of the mouth. The tongue provides a limited sense of taste, as Khoikapek usually swallow their food whole (which is chewed up in the crop, where it is tasted and regurgitated if needs be); the function of the tongue is mainly to prevent the ingestion of substances which could harm the body before they can be regurgitated. Khoikapek have no noses, but smell via vomeronasal organs at the roof of the mouth, which effectively 'taste' the air; like most animals on Tobano, Khoikapek have a very good sense of smell due to the thick atmosphere. Communication As Khoikapek breathe through their cloacas (which are at the back of the body). The cloaca can be 'sounded' to send general signals to other Khoikapek in the area, but the cloaca cannot be used for any more sophisticated communication, for reasons still not agreed upon by evolutionary biologists (a leading theory is that the cloaca is ineffective for directed communication, as it is not at the front of the body). Instead, the Khoikapek primarily employ click languages, enabled by tapping the tongue against different parts of the mouth. There are many different languages among the Khoikapek, though the primary languages are Optopo and Ktaki. Ktaki is based on pronounced, individual clicks, while Optopo is based upon many tonal clicks in quick succession. Though there are other distinctive language groups, they are much smaller than Optopo and Ktaki, which have gradually absorbed other langues of similar structure over many centuries. Gesture and the release of pheromones is also considered important to Khoikapek communication, though these are secondary to sound-based communication. Psychology Despite being a tidally locked planet with no days or seasons, Tobano's climate is still very variable due to high geological activity and dramatic variations in solar output. This makes the climate even harsher than the climate on planets which do have days and seasons, as changes in climate due to solar or geological events are irregular and unpredictable. This resulted in life on Tobano evolving homeothermy (warm-bloodedness) very early on in evolutionary history, which in turn has an impact on basic Khoikapek psychology. The earlier evolution of homeothermy resulted in a much earlier evolution of the neocortical component of the brain (responsible for the higher cognitive functions), and more stunted development of the reptilian (instinctive) and limbic (emotional) components of the brain. For this reason, Khoikapek are very strong in terms of intuition, deliberation, caution and spacial perception. However, in turn, the small reptilian component of their brain means they have weak senses of aggression, territoriality, hierarchy and tradition; the small limbic components of their brains give them weak emotion, short-term memory, visual retention and hedonism. When they first made contact with other species, they were horrified by other species' comparatively strong emotions, aggressiveness, ritualism, hierarchy and hedonism, which the Khoikapek saw as primitive and barbaric. However, other species are often disappointed if they visit a Khoikapek society expecting a utopia of pacifism and rationality. This is due to the very curious hierarchy of needs possessed by the Khoikapek. Due to their weak territoriality, and the need for primitive Khoikapek to spread out to find the best places for hunting, Khoikapek can be individualistic, and had to work out strategies to survive on their own; this means that self-actualisation is at the bottom of their hierarchy of needs (making it the most necessary). This is followed by safety needs (due to the unpredictable and destructive climate and geology of Tobano); only after safety needs do physiological needs come. Again, due to their individualistic nature and strong emphasis on self-actualisation, there is a strong need for one to prove oneself in Khoikapek society, meaning that esteem needs come after physiological needs; only then comes the love and belonging need (the least necessary need). The above hierarchy of needs means that Khoikapek can be unintentionally critical or intrigued of those who do not prove themselves or do their duty (duty being an important concept for the Khoikapek), they are also unenthusiastic about social gatherings with no good reason, meaning that Khoikapek civilisation took a very long time to become fully established. Their psychology also influences their forms of government. For example, their unhierarchical, individualist and safety-concerned (and therefore insurance-oriented) nature has made them tend toward anarcho-capitalist and panarchic political and economic systems in the past.